Be With Beauty is one of the 12 Daily Emotional Fitness Exercises. Two things are involved. The first? Learning to find beauty every where you go. The second? To be fully aware of beauty when you find it.

Tip one: Learn to see beauty everywhere. Beauty surrounds us, but whether we see it is a matter of focus.

In the above poster coach, the gold, the sand, the sea are traditionally seen as beauty. A slimy, salt encrusted, seaweed dripping piece of drift wood is by some as thing of beauty, by others not.

Focus on one grain of sand? Not likely to be viewed as beautiful. See it viewed through under a microscope and a new spectrum of beauty opens up.

When beauty is not readily visible, usually it is most helpful to narrow your focus. You can When beauty is not immediately visible narrow your focus. Find a picture in a museum unappealing? Focus on what you do find appealing. Perhaps that is a color, the way a line swirls, or a form takes shape.

Tip two: Cultivate the ability to be fully aware of beauty when you find it. All EFT’s exercises are most effective when practiced with full awareness. Full awareness is achieved by using the One Minute Meditation or OMM as you do the exercise. How to OMM for full awareness:

Take Calming Breath by breathing in slowly, holding your breath for a count of five, then breathe out slowly.

Breathe normally.

Focus on the exercise.

When your mind begins to wander, take another Calming Breath and refocus or end the exercise by taking another Calming Breathe, smiling gently and saying “Thank You.”

That may sound like bad news, but only if you are reaching for an Olympic Gold Medal or to debut at Carnegie Hall. Being with Beauty requires much less practice. Still some is needed which is why this exercise as with all Emotional Fitness Training Exercises can be practiced in less than a minute.

One word of caution, as you begin to learn to Be With Beauty, practice mainly when you are reasonably calm. As your skill using this exercise builds, you can use it as a soothing exercise, but trying that too soon defeats its soothing power.

Tip four: Surround yourself with beauty. Practicing Being With Beauty is mega-easy when you surround yourself with what you find beautiful. At my desk I have a lovely seashell, some flowers, and on the wall a picture I love for the beauty I see when I glance at it. When stress builds or I want a quick mini break, I can be with one of these.

Tip five: Use a practice reminder. EFT’s Poster Coaches are designed to be printed up and posted where you will see them and be reminded to practice. Add another practice reminder to the Poster Coach. When your phone rings, or during commercials.

Tip six: When you go out into the real world look for beauty and breathe it in and always remember to be grateful.

I use the Daily Prompts not just to spark my blog ideas, but to improve my critical thinking skills. You can do the same.

Not sure how to use a Daily Post Prompt as a writer? Here are the steps to get started. Then improve your thinking skills by seeing where the prompt has led others and how other thoughts fuel your thoughts. Whether you write or not your thinking skills are improved by reading other people’s thoughts.

LINKS OF INTEREST

These links are for those not familiar with Emotional Intelligence or the idea of Emotional Fitness.